{"id":872444,"date":"2026-08-29T08:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872444\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T08:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T08:14:22","slug":"makai-lemons-nfl-debut-could-have-gone-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872444\/","title":{"rendered":"Makai Lemon\u2019s NFL debut could have gone better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Makai Lemon was the sole projected 2026 starter who suited up to play in the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals on Friday night.<\/p>\n

It was a sensible decision. Lemon missed half of the Eagles\u2019 spring practices and the majority of training camp with the same hamstring injury. The team didn\u2019t want his first NFL game action to come against the Washington Commanders in Week 1.<\/p>\n

With Lemon not exactly popping during the limited practices he has participated in, it would\u2019ve been encouraging to see some positive signs from him in this game.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

Lemon finished his first professional football game with five targets that resulted in three catches for three yards. He had a pass go through his hands for an interception and he muffed a punt that he fielded off of multiple bounces before ultimately recovering possession.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Lemon took accountability for the turnover after the game:<\/p>\n

Lemon wasn\u2019t exactly done any favors by Tanner McKee, who largely struggled. McKee threw short of the rookie on the first target of the game. The backup quarterback also probably could\u2019ve placed the pass in the following video better, though Lemon also didn\u2019t exactly generate much separation here:<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that it\u2019s entirely too early to write the book on Lemon\u2019s career. But I do think it\u2019s fair to raise questions about his readiness to contribute early on as a rookie.<\/p>\n

There was a play in this game where Lemon ran into Elijah Moore. There was a rep in practice this week where Lemon didn\u2019t know he was supposed to be on the field.<\/p>\n

Based on what I\u2019ve seen this summer, Darius Cooper and Moore currently inspire more confidence as WR3 options than Lemon does. If beating Washington is the top priority, one of them should be starting alongside DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks in 15 days from now.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t think that deployment is necessarily likely. Lemon has been working with the starters since returning from injury. And the Eagles have been making an effort to force feed him touches, albeit to not much success in practice.<\/p>\n

Perhaps patience with Lemon will pay off and any short-term struggles will subside as he improves over the course of his rookie season. I\u2019m sure many will be quick to compare his path to Cooper DeJean, who also missed a lot of time in training camp before struggling in the Eagles\u2019 preseason finale in 2024.<\/p>\n

A few things about that comparison:<\/p>\n

DeJean is pretty great player who is probably more of the exception than the norm.It wasn\u2019t until Week 6 that the coaching staff trusted DeJean to see regular playing time that year.DeJean\u2019s layoff may have been less detrimental than it is for a rookie receiver missing out on time to build chemistry with his quarterback.<\/p>\n

Maybe one day we\u2019ll look back at this Lemon performance and laugh that there was any concern about his outlook. Until we see more from him, though, I think it\u2019s fair to have some reservations. Especially since the Eagles kind of need him to be ready to have a meaningful role in this offense sooner than later.<\/p>\n

\"Brandon<\/a>\"Bleeding<\/p>\n

Do you have any concern about Makai Lemon?<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

He didn’t look great in his first NFL action. How are you feeling about the Eagles’ 2026 first-round pick?<\/p>\n

Closes in 3 days \u2022 84 total votesView results<\/p>\n

Majorly concernedMildly concernedSlightly concernedNot concerned at allRec 0CommentsThin Stroke Comment Icon BubbleReplyRead 5 replies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Makai Lemon was the sole projected 2026 starter who suited up to play in the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 preseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,69583,85],"class_list":["post-872444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}